


Between Friend And Country

by swingandswirl



Category: Numb3rs
Genre: Angst, M/M, Pre-Canon, Spoilers for 4.01 Janus List
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-13
Updated: 2017-06-13
Packaged: 2018-11-13 16:42:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11189184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swingandswirl/pseuds/swingandswirl
Summary: Colby runs into an old friend on a break from the Academy. Stand-alone, not part of any ‘verse.





	Between Friend And Country

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was written for the numb3rs100 August Rewind prompts: Washington DC, Humanity, Ethics, Oath. It contains spoilers for events that happened in the episodes The Mole, Trust Metric, and the Janus List.

**Washington DC**

Colby’s lounging at the local dive on a rare day off from Quantico when a familiar voice calls his name.

“Dwayne!” he says, smiling at his best friend as he pulls him into a warm hug.

“So what are you doing in DC, man?” Colby asks, listening to Dwayne’s excited babble about his son as he calls for another round of drinks.

One round turns into three whiskeys and a double shot of tequila, so by the time Dwayne’s thigh presses up to Colby’s beneath the bar and his eyes darken with invitation, he almost thinks it’s a good idea. 

 

**Humanity**  
  
They end up in Dwayne’s hotel room, sharing alcohol-soaked kisses as they pull each other’s clothes off, hands moving over battled-scarred skin.   
  
Colby moans as Dwayne sucks a nipple into his mouth, hands tracing a familiar pattern on his cock. They’ve been doing this since Afghanistan, a way to remind themselves that they were human and not just faceless soldiers, one among many, bound to serve, trained to kill.   
  
Dwayne’s in him now, stroking into him, filling him, and as Colby screams his completion into his neck he can’t help but thank God for that damn burning Humvee.   
  
  


**Ethics**   
  


Colby’s still enveloped in the endorphin rush that comes with a really good orgasm, so much so that he nearly misses Dwayne’s question.   
  
“Dwayne, that’s DTNB, you know that. Classified shit,” Colby says.   
  
“Aww, c’mon, Granger, it’s just a manual,” Dwayne cajoles. “Good money, too, enough to go surfin’ in Hawaii. And there’s more coming.”   
  
Colby hesitates, generations of duty and honour warring with the desire to please his best friend.   
  
“I saved your ass once,” Dwayne says, hand on Colby’s bicep, just above the burn scar, and oh, he’s hosed.   
  
“All right,” he says. “But just this one manual.”   
  
  
**Oath**  
  
Colby stands in the shower, trying to wash Dwayne off his skin, cleanse himself of the bitter tang of betrayal.   
  
Tears sting his eyes as he thinks of the oaths they swore, of a bond deeper than most will ever know, of all that’s been torn asunder because Dwayne Carter once pulled him out of a burning Humvee.   
  
He thinks of a little boy who thinks the world of his Daddy, one he loves like his own.   
  
And because Colby knows he has to do right by CJ Carter, he shuts off the water and prepares to turn Dwayne in.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was originally written and posted on LiveJournal in 2009, and is being reposted here for archive purposes.
> 
> Original Notes and Confessions:
> 
> So I’d always planned to do a version of the Colby/Dwayne spy drama where they were more than friends, except I could never find the hook I needed. 
> 
> Then I saw the prompts for the August Rewind and went, “Well, d’oh.” The fic pretty much wrote itself after that. 
> 
> The title comes from an E.M. Forster quote: I hate the idea of causes, and if I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country. Colby's strong enough to choose his country over his friend. 
> 
>  
> 
> In my research for this and other fic, I came across something that said that being in a warzone was long periods of boredom interspersed with running for your life. I’d imagine Colby and Dwayne became closer in those long stretches of nothing to do, and then the Humvee solidified their relationship. In my head it happened very soon after they came to Afghanistan, maybe even in the first month. 
> 
> I’m not sure how to classify Colby and Dwayne’s relationship here- they’re clearly more than friends, but I wouldn’t call them in love, at least not in the traditional sense of the word. But they do love each other deeply, and that just twists the knife further for poor Colby in the last drabble. 
> 
> In a funny way CJ Carter (he’s named for Colby, by the way) is the fulcrum on which both men’s actions turn. Dwayne gets into spying to provide a better future for his son; Colby turns him in because he wants his godson to have a better example than a traitor father. Two very different decisions from two very different men.


End file.
